Ciara Mageean’s widower Thomas Moran has written a heartbreaking tribute to his wife following her death at the start of this month.
The Irish Olympian died aged 34 due to bowel cancer – revealing her stage four diagnosis in May 2025.
The Northern Irish athlete, who represented Ireland at two Olympic Games and claimed European gold in 2024, died surrounded by her loved ones.
Mageean’s death came just weeks after she married her long-term partner Moran in an intimate civil ceremony in Belfast. Just days before her death, the couple celebrated their marriage with family and friends at Darver Castle in County Louth too.
And taking to Instagram on Tuesday night, Moran wrote a lengthy and heartfelt statement in memory of Mageean – declaring his devotion to her and pride since they met 12 years ago.
‘Twelve years ago, I was lucky enough to meet a girl. I knew immediately that she was special: kind, caring, generous, infectious and beautiful beyond words. I did not just fall in love; I became entirely devoted. Her joy became my joy, her fears my fears, and her dreams my dreams. My purpose in life shifted to helping make those dreams come true, in any way that I could,’ his captioned post begins alongside the Instagram carousel of memories of their relationship.
Thomas Moran has written a heartbreaking tribute to his wife Ciara Mageean after her death. The 34-year-old Irish Olympian died at the start of the month due to stage four bowel cancer
He took to Instagram to reflect on his time with Mageean since first meeting her 12 years ago
Mageean and Moran married last month in an intimate civil ceremony in Belfast and then celebrated their marriage with family and friends at Darver Castle in County Louth another date
‘In the years that followed, we chased those dreams wholeheartedly. We built our own little world, a home with two cats and a dog, and filled every space with a love that’s only ours. We travelled and raced and won and lost, lived a life with all its flaws, but we did it together.
‘I’ve tried to think of how best to describe my feelings in this moment, and how to capture a life with Ciara in just a few short words. So rather than a message filled with sorrow or sadness, I want this to be one of pride.
‘I’m proud of every second I got to spend alongside Ciara in this world.
‘Proud to have grown into adulthood together.
‘Proud to have supported her as she chased her dizzying dreams.
‘Proud to have carried her across the threshold of our first home.
‘Proud to have seen the joy on her face the day she first held her puppy, Sam.
‘Proud to have held her hand through the worst of her cancer treatment.
‘Proud to have seen the tear in her eye as she walked down the aisle on her dream wedding day.
‘And proud to have lain by her side in her final moments of life, there with her family until the very end.’
The love for Mageean was evident at her funeral as hundreds of mourners were present in her hometown of Portaferry at St Patrick’s Church.
As an athlete she competed at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics, missing out on Paris 2024 due to injury.
However, earlier that year she made history in 2024 by winning European 1500m gold in Rome, becoming just the second athlete after Sonia O’Sullivan to secure an individual European title for Ireland.
Hundreds of mourners paid tribute to Mageean at her funeral earlier this month in Portaferry
Mageean represented Ireland in athletics and won European 1,500m gold in Rome in 2024
‘Ciara meant so much to so many people. She became, in a way, Ireland’s daughter. Immensely proud, immensely loyal and immensely fierce, she was the epitome of the Irish warrior spirit,’ Moran’s Instagram tribute continues.
‘Before the Rio Olympics, I gifted her a small necklace with the word “Invictus” inscribed on it, taken from the famous poem by William Ernest Henley.
“In the fell clutch of circumstance,
“I have not winced nor cried aloud.
“Under the bludgeonings of chance
“My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
‘I wanted it to serve as a symbol of strength and resilience, but in an almost prophetic way, she went on to embody those qualities in ways I could never have imagined.’
Moran concludes his tribute by envisaging what the future could have been with Mageean.
‘I will miss Ciara forever. The miles we would have run, the homes we would have made, the children we would have had, and the long future we had planned together. But she will forever be in my heart, that flame of hope and inspiration, reminding us to fight on, no matter how fierce the battle, just as she did.
‘For years, Ciara would stand at the top of Windmill Hill, behind her home in Portaferry, and tell me how it was her favourite place in the whole world. I stood up there numerous times over the days of her funeral, taking it in. The weather was clearer than I had ever seen, the sky bluer, the grass greener, the trees all the colours of autumn. You could see further than ever before, tens of miles in every direction, from the top of Strangford Lough, to the Mournes in the south, to the Isle of Man across the Irish Sea, all with perfect clarity.
‘I’ve never seen it quite so beautiful. I don’t normally believe in superstition, but someone was showing off.
‘I knew in those moments that Ciara is in the real heaven now, because she is back home in Portaferry.’
